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8/24/15

A Wonderful Time To Be A Man

One cannot always be a hero,
but one can always be a man.

Johann
Wolfgang

Let me start off today by stating an
idea. It’s not a popular one, and people might react as if this article is one
made in the form of satire or even irony. Before I state it, let me clarify
that I’m being dead serious, and if you find offense from the statement or
disagree, at least give me the opportunity to explain the reasoning behind it
before dismissing it. What is this statement? It’s the following.

This is a wonderful time for
masculinity, manhood, and to be a man!

There, I said it. Let the volatile
reactions commence. Why do you thing I would be expecting such an adverse
reaction? Because masculinity is currently the topic of choice of two opposing
extremes within our society.

One group condemns masculinity as,
in their views, manhood only serves to restrict men, not allowing them to do
certain things and express certain behavior thanks to its oppressive nature.
They assume that men can’t express themselves freely till they break off the
chains of toxic masculinity, yet they never define the difference between toxic
masculinity and any other kind of masculinity. Any manly interests or
expressions are viewed as a result of brainwashing where men are little more
than a mindless slave to a social construct. Then again, this group, if allowed
to rant on, will blame ALL of society’s ills on masculinity.

The other group fears for
masculinity as, in their views, society has made an open declaration of war
against anything manly. They rant on about the “wussification” of men as they
promote the idea that men should only do manly things. Their construction of masculinity is so frail that anything, especially
those things that are traditionally viewed as feminine or “woman’s work,” can
serve to make men less of a man. In their eyes, masculinity needs to be labeled
and color coded to keep men from turning out “funny.” (Funny=code word used to
avoid saying gay and being called a homophobe)

As both of these groups go at each
others throats, manhood is caught in the crossfire. And if I would focus on
the negative aspects of this debate, I would think that masculinity would end
up as a casualty of war, something that one side would celebrate and the other
would use as “proof” of the “agenda” the first group has against humanity.
Here’s the thing. This isn’t the first time masculinity nor has manhood come
under fire. We saw it during the Age of Illumination as cold intelligence an
education was thought would destroy the emotionality of masculinity. We saw it
during the Age of Industrialization as machines would replace the physical
prowess of masculinity. Nietzsche and C.S. Lewis wrote extensively about this,
in case you’re interested.

What we are seeing today is just the
growing pains of masculinity evolving, as is the rest of society. When you
filter out all the ridiculous extremes and absurd conjectures loudly screamed
out by both groups, and it’s a lot, you end up with a vision of an amazing new
man, a man sure of himself as he finds a balance between the masculine and the
feminine side of human nature.

Ironically, this is the way manhood
had always been viewed before we hit all the current social bullshit of
selective condemnation, convenient blindness, and institutionalized whining. This
new man is no longer a slave to either social construct, the one that limited
who he is because of masculinity, and the one that limited his masculinity
because of who he is.

So let these two groups go at each
others throat. You keep being a man who lives in a way that you can be proud
of. Don’t let either group make you feel ashamed of who you are. When the smoke
clears and we can finally see the empty battlefield, we will notice it wasn’t
masculinity that was burned down, but rather the blinders that these two groups
hold on so dearly that is gone.

Club Men

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